Tag: dairy-free

Man I am behind! I made this tart last month for my handsome husband’s birthday (pictured here). In my defense we have my brother and his 4 children living with us, so we are all adjusting on all fronts.

Praise God for the opportunity to serve them, though. Family, friends, and love are above all else (underneath God of course), so the writing and recipe sharing has gone on the back burner, so I can be there for my brother in his time of need.

But today, right now, I have some extra time. So I would love to share this tasty little recipe with you all.

My husband loves banana. If you follow this page, who probably already know that. Last year for his birthday I made him a Cinnamon Semi-Naked Banana Cake. It was delicious, so click the link for that one as well. This year I was inspired by a pin I saw on Tartelette. I love to make pies and tarts. This one was for a tart with chocolate. Caramel. Peanut Butter. Banana. All kinds of tasty things. I decided to change the sweeteners. Swap the peanut butter for cashew butter. And to add some whipped topping because that is all too rich for me.

Zach took it to his Monday Men’s Group and it was a hit, they ate it all.

Maybe you don’t like pumpkin or apple pies and next week you want to switch up your Thanksgiving dessert. This could be interesting.

I hope to have more recipes coming soon. I plan on making a croquembouche for Thanksgiving. Filled with pecan pie filling, cranberry pastry cream, and pumpkin mousse. Stayed tuned to see how it goes. I will also be making some cheesecake domes for our church Thanksgiving dinner. This morning my mind was drawing out pumpkin cheesecakes on gingerbread cookies with caramel filling and a pepita brittle sitting on top of a mirror glaze. AND sweet potato cheesecake with a praline filling and toasted marshmallow outside. We will see, but the ones in my vision are stunning and scrumptious. Hopefully I will be sharing them with you Monday.

Turmeric is kind of like the matcha I talked about two week (click the word matcha for a link of some cookies I made). I researched turmeric about 10 years ago when I was a research queen. When I find out something is amazingly awesome, I try to include it. Note: when you put it in bone broth it may turn florescent yellow (turmeric is a lovely mustardy yellow color spice).

Fast forward to the present day, when golden milk lattes are kind of popular. You can even get them pre-mixed at health stores. Of course they are expensive and you are better off making them at home. And the time it takes to make them is minimal.

Earlier this year I found a recipe I really liked. You mixed almond milk and maple together, which you place in a glass with ice. Separately you mixed coconut milk, maple, and the spices. Then you pour it over the iced almond milk. It made a beautiful, ombre-like drink. And it tasted good. My husband didn’t like it. Why is it yellow? This is kind of typical in our house. He can’t stand the smell of kombucha when I drink it. Therefore, when I made these muffins, I told them they had turmeric in them until after he had already eaten them.

Originally I was planning on making a loaf, but I wasn’t really sold on any of the flavor combos. Then one morning at the market, I realized I wanted a golden milk inspired muffin. I found a donut muffin recipe that I wanted to transform into gluten-free, the glaze looked nice. I had some dates in my fridge waiting to be used. And a handful of leftover pecans. In my mind all these things go. All these things would enhance the flavor.

They were delicious! I was supposed to double dip the glaze, but I only had enough for one dip. Plus I think the one was sufficient enough. They smelled absolutely phenomenal. And they tasted like a yummy spice cake. So good. I had to put them in my freezer and offer them to someone else, so I wouldn’t want to eat them breakfast all day. Or a lunch side. Or a dinner side. They were Zach-approved (the husband who did not like my golden milk drinks). And mom approved (I also waited to tell her it had turmeric until afterwards, I couldn’t get her to try the drink either).

You could omit the dates. Or exchange them for raisins. Or use another nut in place of the pecans. Or just make them as they are, since they are so good. And try the drink as well.

I was looking for a beautiful quote to share about how creativity makes me feel and right away I was drawn to this one. And of course it was Brene Brown, she writes some truly wonderful things.

Creativity has been one of the best blessings of my life. The creativity that flows through me is literally overwhelming sometimes. And it spills. It spills out into different areas of my life. Growing up it manifested in the form of art and drawing, notably portraits. Then It took the form of writing. Eventually the art became food. It can be seen sometimes in the way I do my hair (there was a time in my life when I used to braid a lot of hair in very unique patterns). In my clothes. In my home. It used to even show up in my kettlebells, as I used to dream up new ways to move and challenge my body.

And it comes out of nowhere sometimes. I can be on a walk and recipes ideas and flavor combos will just download in my mind. Or I will write an entire post in my head. Editing and rewriting as I go. These meringues. Same thing.

I was at work making lemon meringue pies as I often do, when I started pondering on the simplicity of a meringue. And for some reason I was also thinking about macarons. And I was remembering this pic I had seen on Instagram of a coconut macaron that had a meringue on top. I watched the video of them making it like 5 times. And I started to image the lemon meringue pie as a macaron. Lemon curd filling. A beautiful meringue on top. Maybe brush some yellow coloring in the bag to be fun. I had to make it. I had envisioned and tasted it already. It had to come to life. Luckily I had a meeting to go to where they like my macarons.

It didn’t even stop there. I’m thinking of all the curds I’ve made. Grapefruit. Cranberry. Mango. I really want to make a pineapple one, because pineapple is delicious (duh). Then I was thinking I could use a macadamia nut base for the macarons instead of almond. And I could do a toasted coconut meringue on top. Yum. Maybe some lime zest in the curd? Maybe that’s too much going. Oh well, you may have this recipe coming sometime.

I praise God for this creativity and what a blessing it is. Because sometimes I look at something I made in awe and I can’t believe I’ve made it. It is more than me. It brings me joy, but I love more that it has the potential to bring others joy. What good is it to have a talent or gift and not share it with others? That’s why we have it no? This dynamic world where we all have something we can contribute. And food. Food is such a way for me to share and express the love I have in my heart. Each pie is truly from a place of love. Plus a passion and fervor for it to bless others. That is my main desire in all this baking and striving with my business, and that is to share joy and love. And beautiful food, that hopefully tastes as equally good.

Meringue is only something I have recently started to embrace. Mostly I think that I have discovered meringue done right. Meringue is really so simple. Pretty much egg whites and sugar. But they are packed with not only a beautiful flavor, but really the texture is what drives this home for me. A slight crunchy outside, but they just melt and dissolve in your mouth.

I have gotten many people hooked on the meringue cookie fan bus, who really didn’t know what they were before hand. Cookies are just perfect little pop-able sized goodness.

I wanted to push myself a little bit further than cookies. (I will note here that pavlovas are a great way to experiment and use meringue as well. Click this link -> Polifroni Pavlovas <- for a link to some I made two years ago which were divine. )

Roulade. I have made cake based roulades before. I actually worked at a bake house where we made pumpkin roulades all Fall long. And I have played with some gluten-free cake roulades, but on my Pinterest I have seen some recipes for meringue roulades. They sounded fun. They looked beautiful and delicious.

Plus, as always, you can play with flavors. Once you have the meringue, you can be bold and courageous with flavors. I made a banoffee one because I like caramel. And coffee. And chocolate. And because bananas are like my husbands favorite thing.

It was delicious. But you can try other flavors as well. My second-runner up option would have been a summer berry one with fresh cream too. Caramel apple would be great in the Fall. in winter I would make one with cranberry curd, whip and fresh and orange zest. For Valentines Day I would try a chocolate one with raspberries and chocolate curls.

Sometimes I like to make things I haven’t eaten in a while. Cinnamon Rolls. It took a while before I found a cinnamon roll recipe I liked. As in I tried at least 5 different ones and they were all dense (as I find happens often with bread too). Something else I really wanted to make were bagels.

I always enjoyed bagels growing up. Toasted with some cream cheese maybe. Toasted to make a breakfast sandwich. Toasted with some peanut butter (although I’d probably use almond now).

I also really enjoyed bagel chips, especially in trail mixes. A few months ago I realized they are now selling snacks of bagel chips and dip. They were so cute and really gave me an urge to make some. And then my friend John and I started talking about bagel chips and that pretty much solidified that I had to make some.

Zach, my mom, and I all tasted this. Verdict was that they were delicious, perfectly crunchy. The great thing about this is you can make a variety of kinds and flavor match ups. Here I have used everything bagels and paired it with a roasted garlic dip. You could also enjoy them with a cheeseball. Or go sweet. Maybe a cinnamon raisin bagels with a pumpkin-y dip. Or cherry bagels with a Spanish style chocolate dip. Or blueberry with a lemon butter. Or an Asiago bagel. Or a pretzel bagel with cheese maybe. Play. Experiment. Have fun.

Gluten-Free Bagel Chips:

1-2 Gluten-Free Bagels (there are loads out there to search on Pinterest)

I was on a bit of a pie kick a few weeks ago. As you will recall, I posted a recipe for a Chocolate Cherry Pie <——– click link here to get it. Well, as I was making this beautiful pie, another recipe came to mind. I should put bananas in the crust. My wonderful husband loves banana. He also really liked a banoffee pie I made once for the frat house. So let’s put some caramel in there somehow. Some chocolate. Maybe add some espresso for fun. Add more bananas. More caramel. And some whipped cream to keep it refreshing.

This was DELICIOUS. The caramel cream is where it’s at. And the espresso in the chocolate was enough that you are wondering about all the flavors you’re getting. It was a big hit and my husband loved them, which is the most important thing. Said they were one of the best things and although he is complimentary, he is also honest with my baking because he worked in a kitchen for 15 years and knows to be truthful so I can make the food better.

Stick around tomorrow I will be posting something savory: Taco Meatloaf, which has been a hit a few times around here.